


Detraque

by TeamGallifreeWill



Series: A Touch of Normal [22]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Wings, Case Fic, Dark Past, Dean Winchester Loves Castiel, F/M, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Protective Dean Winchester, Protective Sam Winchester, So Married, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:55:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24701896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamGallifreeWill/pseuds/TeamGallifreeWill
Summary: The Winchesters get word of a case involving the mysterious "A". This one quickly gets personal for all involved and turns out to go much deeper than anyone could have guessed. Could this one be too much?
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester/Original Female Character(s)
Series: A Touch of Normal [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1005252
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Sam calls over to his brother when he sees him enter the kitchen, “Got something.” There’s definitely something troublesome in his voice.

Dean’s eyebrow raises in apprehension. “What is it?” he asks, walking over with his coffee and donut.

Sam watches before explaining, his voice still tight. “A hunter reached out, said there’s a rumor going around that there’s a rogue angel hunter back at it again,” he stops as his brother holds up his hand.

“Again?” Dean couldn’t have heard that right.

“Yeah, and get this,” he scans the screen until he finds what he’s looking for, “Here, ‘they’re saying it’s ‘A’ again. Not sure if you ever heard of them.’ ” He doesn’t see his brother almost choke and widen his eyes as he continues reading. “ ‘Cruelest SOB you ever wanna meet according to the stories. Could be the reason it’s been quiet on the heavenly front lately.’ It continues too,” he finishes almost angrily.

“Hold up, ‘A’ as in Alexa? That’s- What? Seriously?” Dean can hardly believe this is about the same woman that smiled and made donuts, which are currently forming a knot in his stomach, beside his angel last night. There’s gotta be some kind of catch here. “Who sent this?”

“Dale heard it as he was passing through town. Thought it sounded more like our kind of thing.”

“Sounds a little odd. I mean the specific mention of A?” Sam knows he’s processing and looking at the matter from all angles, that’s why Dean’s so good hunting and strategy in the first place.

“Yeah,” his tone screams restrained anger. “Have you heard any of these rumors?”

Dean shakes his head thoughtfully. “No. Granted, we never really hung out with hunters before Asa’s funeral”, he shrugs. “Hell, they may have been sharing stories about her as well as us that day.”

“I don’t buy it,” Sam says through clenched teeth.

“Sammy, calm down. It’s a rumor, we know it’s not her. And it wasn’t her back then. She never killed an angel out of malice.” Sam shrugs. “No. Don’t go there. That time with her boyfriend doesn’t count. They were gonna kill her too, and you know it.”

“Yeah,” he agrees and sags in his seat. “I just, how are we gonna do this?”

Before Dean can answer Alexa walks in, “Do what?”

“Um, we might have found something,” Sam tries to brush it off but is unable to meet her eyes.

“Riiight,” she drawls suspiciously. Then she turns to Dean, “Wanna elaborate on that?” She crosses her arms against her chest and cocks her hip.

Dean takes a breath and squares his shoulders. Then, in one breath, looks straight ahead and rushes, “A hunter reached out and said the angel killing hunter may be at it again and thought we could handle it.” Even though he kept the mention of her alter ego under wraps, he can’t look at her either. All he hears is the gasp that pulls his attention back to her face.

“Where? We have to stop them. Where’s Cas? He has to sit this one out,” she goes back down the hall, presumably to find the angel.

Dean looks at his brother who’s staring at the screen worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. When he lets it go, Dean chances another sip of coffee. That is, until he sees his brother’s teeth trade his lip for his nail. Setting his cup down he speaks up, “Ok, you’re sitting this one out, too.”

Sam’s thumb quickly retreats away from his mouth, “What?” He shakes his head, “Dean, that doesn’t make sense.”

Dean raises his hand and gestures to his fidgety brother across from him. “Really? Dude, you’re already spinning out just from reading the email. No way can you handle it in person.”

Sam rolls his eyes, “What about Cas?”

“What about him? You heard Lex, he’s not coming near it either,” His tone is cold as ice, and there’s no arguing with it. “I can do this.”

“Not alone Dean, that’s just stupid.” Sam runs his hand through his hair, “Take Lex.” At Dean’s confusion he continues, “She’s the real A, Dean.”

“Exactly, Sam, they think it’s her. I’m not going to hand her over to them!” 

“I know you won’t. But she’s also the next best angel expert after Cas, and a badass hunter that can handle herself too,” Clearly even being upset doesn’t stop his logic. Mostly.

When he doesn’t budge, Dean unhappily gives in with a sigh, “Yeah, ok. Where are we going?”

“Red Rock, Oklahoma. About four hours from here.”

Dean nods and stands, “Ok, then.” As he passes, he pats Sam’s shoulder. Sam just rests his head in his hand and stares at the map up on his laptop, instead of watching as his brother leaves the room.

After a short time all four meet back up in the garage. “You guys have everything?” Sam asks restlessly, while watching Dean and Alexa load up Baby.

“Yeah, think so babe,” Alexa turns to him with a bright smile. She sees his apprehension and steps over to wrap her arms around his waist, “We’ll be fine, Sam. Take care of yourself and we’ll call if we need anything, ok?”

He brushes a nonexistent strand of hair from her face, “Yeah, ok. Just be careful,” he leans down and gives her a kiss, “Love you.”

“Love you too, Sweetie.”

The two don’t notice Dean come up behind her until he clears his throat, “We should get going. Sammy, behave yourself. No keggers, got it?”

The lame joke still makes Sam grin, “You got it, Dean. Now don’t get dead, and bring her back to me.”

“You got it, man,” Dean winks over the roof, then walks around to give Sam a quick pat on the back.

“Alexa, a word?” Cas speaks up while the brothers talk.

“Course,” she walks over to him, slightly concerned, “what is it?”

“This case, I feel like it will….” he looks over at Dean, then back at her, “..Get to him.”

Alexa quickly catches on to his concern. “I promise, Cas. I’ll watch out for him.”

“Thank you,” Cas says as Dean says they should get going.

“See ya, Cas,” Alexa says before stealing another kiss from Sam as she gets in shotgun.

“Later, Angel,” Dean says, giving him one more quick peck as he comes around to the driver’s side. Sam and Cas stand there quietly until Baby is out of view.

“Well,” Sam says, throwing an arm around Cas’s shoulders, “Now we wait.”

The angel knits his brow as he looks up at the hunter, “I don’t like that plan.”

Sam chokes out a laugh, “Yeah, well, it’s that or drink until we’re distracted enough to not worry. Pretty sure you’d need two liquor stores for that.” Cas sighs and walks back into the bunker with Sam.

“Do you really think this case is that bad?” the angel asks quietly.

Sam sighs, “I don’t know. It’s all hearsay, but it sounds like it could either be nothing, or a whole lot of something bad,” he admits.

“I’ll make more coffee,” Cas offers.

“Yeah, good plan.” With a pat to the shoulder, Sam drops his arm and the two walk back into the bunker.

\---------------

Inside the Impala, Dean turns to Alexa, “So, moping or drinking?”

Alexa smiles, “First hour? They’ll at least try to stay sober.”

“Yeah, probably right. It’ll take longer than that to just gather enough alcohol to get Cas wasted anyway,” he smiles.

Alexa shakes her head, “He’ll be fine Dean.” She watches as he presses his lips into a thin line and nods before she gets serious, “As much as it sucks, Dean, you gotta get him out of your head on this one.” He throws her a skeptical look. “As much as possible anyway. We’re both already too close to this and we haven’t even gotten there yet.”

“Yeah, I know.” _And you don’t even know all of it._

“We’ll figure this out and then be home before you know it. But for now let me see your phone, Sam said he sent you the info. I don’t know why he didn’t send it to me,” she stops her rambling when he doesn’t answer, “Dean?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, don’t need my phone, wasn’t much to it, just Red Rock, Oklahoma, crazy Hunter going after angels. See? All there is,” He flashes a fast smile and wink in her direction. 

“Ok,” she hesitantly accepts, “Are we meeting up with the hunter who tipped you off?”

Dean coughs, “Uh, no, actually. He had to move on to a case up north.”

“Oh. Okay,” She blinks a few times before turning her eyes back to the passing scenery. “So why didn’t Sam come with us again? I mean obviously Cas had to stay back.”

Dean chances a look to see that she’s still looking out the window, “Oh, Sammy just wanted to keep Cas company. Yeah, and get a jump on anything in the books that might be useful.”

Alexa gives him a long glare at his lying smile, “There’s nothing to look up Dean, we’re going after a human as far as I know. It’s the reason I was told to leave behind my blade, to ‘not raise suspicions’.” She gives him ample time to respond, and when he doesn’t, she just sadly shakes her head. “We’re talking about this later,” She resumes looking out the window.

Dean runs his hand over his mouth and keeps his eyes on the road. The rest of the drive goes quickly with little conversation. When they get to the hotel and check in, Dean takes his time getting to the room because he knows Alexa is going to be on him about what they’ve been hiding. Entering the room, Alexa drops her bag on the bed, then sits at the foot, crossed-legged.

Dean refuses to look at her, but knows it’s coming. He lets his keys fall to the table, “What?”

“What are you hiding from me?” She asks with no preamble.

He sighs, “It's the case.”

“Yeah, got that,” she interrupts in a huff.

He rests against the table, “You know how we told you there were a lot of rumors around the whole thing?” He waits ‘til she nods, “Yeah, well, the email Sammy got said they think it’s A.”

She stills as it sinks in, “But I-, What? You said this was someone hunting angels. I never did that! Where did they get that idea? And when I had to kill, it was in self defense…” She spaces out and Dean jumps to her side.

Dean is running his hand up and down her back in steady strokes to help calm her breathing. “Hey, hey, Lex, we know it’s not you, calm down, I mean, just, whoever this is, isn’t and never was you.”

“Why did you bring me?” She asks on the verge of tears. “Sam should’ve come with you; not me.”

Dean switches positions so that he’s kneeling in front of her. “Sam was freaking out just reading the email. I didn’t think his head would be in the game, he’d be too busy protecting the idea of you.”

“What about Cas?”

His tone hardens. “What about him?”

Noticing the shift she has to admire in some respect how he’s able to control himself. “How are you able to handle this?”

“Because Cas is with Sam and they’ll look out for each other.” He says it as fact and no one would argue it otherwise.

With a single nod, the matter is settled. “You’re right. And I promised Cas I’d look out for you. I just can’t help feeling that we should’ve given this to someone else. Why did we take it anyway?”

No way can he deny her that. “I know, I wondered the same thing a few times, but we had to take it because if we had passed it on, it could lead to them hunting you. No way would any of us let that happen. So, we go in knowing the truth, figure this out, and get the hell back home.”

Her own tone hardens as she composes herself. “You’re right, Dean. We need to handle this ourselves. I’m sorry, I’m ok now. I just wish you hadn’t hid this from me.”

Dean finally relaxes and stands back up again, “I won’t do it again, now, let’s get some grub and figure out what we’re walking into, huh?” She nods and with a few swipes to rid her cheeks of stray tears she stands as well and they head back out. They take their time and scope out the town. Walking into a bar for some lunch, they quickly figure out it's a hunter hang out. Word travels fast about the ‘newbies’ in town and they quickly have a list of accused to check out first.

While they eat, Alexa looks up addresses for the list, finding that three of the five are actually listed in the online white pages. At least assuming they’re the same ones. _Weekend hunters_ , she shrugs to herself. After paying their check, they head to the first name on the list making quick work of scratching it, and the next one, off the list after a short discussion. At the third address, their conversation doesn’t make the hunter a suspect, but instead, he gives them another lead.

Looking at the time, and getting a little tired of going in circles, they decide to start fresh in the morning. However, Dean decides it’s time for food again and Alexa thinks it’s also a good chance to dig up what they can on their suspect. After ordering, they head back to their room. Alexa reads through some articles as she sips at her milkshake distractedly. Apparently this new hunter just arrived and tried getting everyone else on his bandwagon to take out the angels. He’s convinced they’re trying to manipulate humans into saying yes, and then using them to make war and destroy humanity as a whole. Although Dean and Alexa have to admit there’s a small sliver of truth to that, it’s clear this guy is a bit too fanatical for his own good.

Crumpling up his burger wrapper, Dean stands and stretches his back. They both ignore the pop that sounds as he does so, “Well, I say we get our beauty rest and track down this asshat tomorrow.”

Alexa closes her laptop and agrees, “Sounds good, you want the shower first, princess?”

Dean turns from his duffle, pointing a bundle of clothes at her, “That’s handmaiden,” he says seriously, then breaks into a smile, “And if you don’t mind?”

She can’t help but laugh, “Go for it.”

Alexa sits there for a moment playing with her phone as she hears the water turn on. She hasn’t really talked to Sam since they left, and after finding out how the brothers lied to her, she doesn’t really feel like speaking with him. She tosses it near the pillows and unzips her bag. Suddenly she’d much rather sleep, so she pulls out the t-shirt and shorts, setting the duffle beside the bed, she decides to just undress and get ready for bed. She can shower in the morning. Alexa doesn’t even notice the water turning off as she crawls into bed and turns the tv on. She’s flipping through the limited channels when Dean walks back out, drying his hair.

“Shower’s all yours,” he stops when he sees her blankly staring at the tv. “Lex?” He asks from beside the bed.

“What- oh sorry, you want this bed? I can move.” She starts to get up.

He holds out his hand shaking her off, “No, Lex, you ok? I don’t care about the bed.”

“I’m fine, just tired, and I’ll shower in the morning. You want the remote? Think I’ll turn in after I hit the bathroom,” Without another word, or waiting for his answer, she gets up and drops the remote on his bed as she passes. Deciding it’s best to let her process the day on her own, Dean finds something on the tv and stretches out. When Alexa walks back out of the bathroom, she finds him texting with eyes at half mast and a soft smile on his lips. He must be talking to Cas and she lets it slide as she gets back into bed. No further discussion happens as they both fall asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

In the morning Dean offers to get breakfast while Alexa showers. After they eat, they find a last known address to check out. Driving over, they both get the suffocating feeling that something is off here. The house itself is more of a big outpost, with a smaller shed attached. Dean instantly pulls his gun and steadies his aim as they approach. Alexa reaches for her angel blade before remembering she left it behind. Instead of the preferred weapon, she brings out her own firearm from its hiding place at the small of her back.

A quick sweep proves the larger portion to be void of its owner, but a mess of papers and wardings in his place. Noticing a few that look legit, Alexa calls over to Dean, “We should pack these up and take them with us. Some may be duplicates, but this amount of stuff shouldn’t just be left.”

“Yeah, we can stop and pick up some bins or boxes or something. No matter how good you are at Tetris, I’m not sure all of this will all fit in Baby though.” They continue moving on until they’ve scanned the main house and head to the shed. Opening the door, they’re taken completely by surprise and freeze at the sight.

__________   


“Oh, my God,” Alexa lets out in a hushed tone.

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Dean admits.

“This is...” Alexa can’t continue and covers her mouth with her hand as a tear falls down her cheek.

“I-Cas,” Dean starts to pull out his phone and turns to leave.

“NO!” Alexa grabs his arm. “Dean, don’t,” she stresses, and then realizes that telling their angel about the room wasn’t his intention. She lets him go and takes a step back. “Make sure he’s ok and then we kill this sick son of a bitch,” she says with a nod.

Dean steels himself, then makes the call.

“Hello, Dean,” Cas answers instantly.

“Cas, we, um,” he closes his eyes, and his mind is cruel enough to bring up an image of Cas’s wings up on the rack with the others. His revulsion ramps up again and he has to take a steadying breath.

“Dean, what is it?” His tone instantly changes.

Dean answers slowly. “Cas, it’s bad. I just, I wanted to give you a heads up that I, um, you, we-we’re gonna be feeling a lot, if you know what I mean.”

A deep breath comes through the line before a soft, “Yes, I understand, Dean. Be careful,” He looks down at the table.

“Yeah. Yeah, we will. Um, you guys too, ok?” Dean holds the phone to his ear, but looks to the sky.

“We’re fine, Dean, you two have only been gone a day,” he says with a small smile as he sets Dean up for one of his lame jokes.

Instead of taking the bait, Dean just continues and the angel’s gentle smile fades to a concerned frown, “Yeah, right, well, um, I should go.”  _ We shouldn’t have taken this. We SHOULD just drive the hell back home. _

“You should end this, Dean, I love you.” Cas’s voice cuts through his thoughts.

“Love you, too, Angel.” He quickly hangs up before saying something else.

Cas looks at the phone after the call ends. Just then Sam walks in, “Hey, man, that them?”

“Yes, it seems they’ve found the hunter and it’s ‘bad’,” he quotes, still looking at the phone with a tilted head.

“Bad? What does that mean?” Sam asks worriedly. “Are they ok?”

Cas folds his hands in front of him. “I don’t know, but it has Dean rather anxious and unnerved.”

“Dean got unnerved?” His eyebrows reach his hairline as he tries to think of what might have caused such a reaction in his brother.

“Yes. Has Alexa said anything?” He finally looks up at the younger Winchester.

He shifts a bit uncomfortably, not letting on to the fact that they haven’t really spoken much. “Uh, no, maybe she’ll call in a bit, once they figure it out,” he says more as a question.

\------------

Dean walks back to Alexa who hadn’t taken more than a step or three into the room. “We should go,” He refuses to look again.

“Yeah,” is Alexa’s curt response.

The drive to the hotel is fast and silent; both lost in their own thoughts. Walking into the room, Alexa loses her control and races to the bathroom. A few minutes later, she walks back out, “I’m sorry. I just...” But she stops when Dean wraps his arms around her.

“No, I get it. Judgement free zone.” His arms tighten around her and lets her fall apart for a moment.

Pulling herself together again, she pulls back. “Right. So,” she clears her throat, “Now that that’s out of the way, are you ready to get this bitch?”

“Lex, I- we have to kill him, you know that right? Like, yes, most of the angels are dickbags with wings, but that,” He can’t finish as the words get lost behind his hand. 

Her hand comes to rest on his shoulder. “I know. And yeah, but we have to be careful. The knowledge that he would need to do that, and the cruelty to be able to carry it out,” she shakes her head at the image her mind readily recalls. “We either go in showing we know more, or we go in playing dumb.”

Dean thinks it over, “Seems like the type that would get dangerous if someone waltzed in showing him up.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” she tilts her head. “We got work to do.”

The two sit down and start digging up everything they can find on the man. Despite being in town for only a month, his rantings and vigorous recruiting tactics have made an impression. Said impression brings a clear routine to light. Soon they make a plan to catch up with the fanatic at his evening recruiting stop. 

\----------

After a stop for some containers, they pull up at the bar, the goal is for them to get in and have the hunter lead them back to his place. However, after feeling the barely controlled rage rolling off of Dean, Alexa has a slightly different idea.

“Dean,” she looks at his blazing eyes, “Sit this out.”

“What? No! If he-,” He clenches his fist and jaw to gather his thoughts. 

“And that is exactly why you need to stay back. It’s too personal,” Before he can interject she continues, “I know, pot kettle, but it’s still easier for me than it is for you.”

“I don’t like this,” is all he says.

“I’m well aware. Now, look at me,” she reaches a soft hand to his jaw, “I have unfortunately dealt with similar monsters. Granted none as vile, but,” she shrugs, “I got this part. Yeah?”

He drops his gaze and nods, “Yeah, ok. Just,” he takes her hand from his jaw and gives it a squeeze, “Be careful.”

“Of course. You think I can leave you three to yourselves? Someone needs to watch out for you,” she winks.

“Yeah, ok,” He rolls his eyes.

“Now eyes open, mister. If I need you, my signal will be putting my hair up.”

“So the same as your ‘about-to-deal-with-shit’ signal?”

“Basically,” she smiles and opens the door. “Now wish me luck.”

“Luck.”


	3. Chapter 3

Alexa walks in and makes a convincing show of being a naive hunter. When she orders another drink the bartender brings it over with a nod to a corner booth, saying it was paid for. She looks over nodding her thanks. The nod is returned, and then she’s being waved over to join him.

_ This is it. Ugh, he even looks slimy.  _ She reaches the table and is welcomed with an easy, “Hello there sweetheart. Name’s Ray. You new in town? Haven’t seen your face before, and believe me, I’d remember it.”

The comment makes her nauseous, but she pushes through, “Just passing through actually. Caught wind of a job out this way, you know how it is.”

“Right, course. What kinda job was it? Far as I know, ain’t been nothing going bump in these parts for a while.”

“That’s why I’m already on my way out. Didn’t find anything,” She shrugs and fakes taking a sip from her glass.

“You been in the game long?”

“Oh, no,” she shrinks in on herself with practiced ease, “My family was killed by demons. Been doing it since.”

“Shame, but at least demons don’t pretend around you. Just know from the jump that they’ll take you if they want to.”

“Ways to stop that,” she pulls aside her shirt collar showing off Dean’s drawing skills. Luckily the perv across from her is too distracted by the flash of skin that he misses the smudged lines of ballpoint ink.

“You’re a smart one then. I like that.”

“I learn fast,” She shrugs it off.

“That so, huh?” His eyes skim over her and then back up, “Got something to show you if you wanna come back to my place. Kind of a ‘for your eyes only’ thing being as these jokers think I’m nuts, but I tell ya, I know the truth.”

_ Sure ya do, you psycho,  _ she thinks, but instead “Oh, you mean there is a case here?” is what she says, pretending to get excited.

A creepy smile spreads across his lips, “Oh, this one’s a biggie, sweetheart.”

“Well, sure, got nowhere else to be.”  _ This feels too easy. _

The hunter watches as she stands and turns, waiting for him to walk her out. “Never did get your name.”

“Oh, it’s Rose,” she holds out her hand, hopefully hiding the disgust in her expression.

“Well, by any other name,” he smirks, “you drive here? You could follow me.”

“Oh, no. Planned on drinking a bit more, so I walked.”

“Knew you were smart the second I met you. Right this way,” he ushers her out the door and she pretends to play with her hair as she walks, until she makes eye contact with Dean. He’s nervously tapping the steering wheel, but nods that he understands to follow them.

The drive is awkward for Alexa, to say the least, and gives her the urge to spin her engagement ring. The one that is currently on the other hand. She wants to call Sam, have his voice somehow make it better, hug Cas, and forget what she’s seen. But a few glances in the side mirror shows Dean following behind, only easy to spot if you know to look for Baby. When they arrive, Ray shows her into the house where he explains his ‘findings’ and the different sigils that mark the walls. She resists the urge to correct a few ‘facts’ in his ramblings and lets him continue.

However, when he shows her a few lines of Enochian, she can’t help herself, “This is good, but you got a few symbols mixed up,” She switches them, making them ineffective. 

“Oh, shit, you know your stuff, sweetheart,” He coos and makes Alexa’s skin crawl.

“Yeah, well, used to be a specialty of mine,” She keeps looking through the piles, trying to figure out if this bastard has an actual reason for his sadistic hobby.

He stops, “Thought you weren’t in it long.”

Keeping her voice steady she continues the lie. “Haven’t been. My family was very religious, though. Pastor’s daughter actually.”

“Right, you, uh, ever been around these parts before?” He goes back to slowly walking through his things.

Something in his tone causes the hair on the back of her neck to stand. “Ah, yeah, a long time ago, though. Wasn’t exactly myself.”

“Mmm, seems to me you were who you were supposed to be, A,” He smirks as he pats her ass.

She’s not sure what surprises her more, but she spins and lands a hard right hook to his jaw, “Don't you dare touch me.”

“Woahohoho,” he holds his jaw. “They said you were a feisty one. The great A. Angel huntress extraordinaire.”

“That’s not me,” She growls.

“Did they call you A for angel killer, or was it really your name? Rumors had it at about 50/50.” Alexa’s blood runs cold at the reminder of how she was seen by other hunters. She wasn’t that cold, was she? She just knew how to be dangerous if need be. She didn’t hunt down angels. Never. But did she help others do that? What if it had been Cas that they’d hunted? “Hey, I’m honored, really.”

“I said, that’s not me. I’m not whoever you think I am,” She says as steadily as she can.

“Oh, but I think you are, sweetheart,” he moves in closer to her.

“Stop calling me that. I said no. What is this all about?” She tries to change the conversation’s direction.

“Oh, come on. The two of us can take out however many of those winged bastards are left. You know there’s even a rumor of a pair of hunters working with one of them?” He sneers while her heart stops,  _ who else could he mean? _ “You’d never run with scum like that now, would you?” He starts circling her like a shark moving in for the kill, when she doesn’t respond, he continues, “Tell you what, if I ever run into them, don’t care who they are, won’t wait for an explanation of why they work with a flying varmint, won’t give them the chance.”

“So you’d just murder them as well?”

He actually smiles and continues his rant instead of answering. “Surprised they’re not busting down my door by now actually, maybe that junker was just a look alike after all. ‘bout a week ago a scrawny guy came through talking about the wonderful Winchesters,” He mocks their surname, “said they’d both settled down now. Actually I gave it a thought as to which rumors were true, but it quickly passed.”

“What rumors?” Alexa speaks up again.  _ This is starting to sound more and more like a trap. _

“Well, one had them settling down, together, if you know what I mean, but that seemed far fetched even for the nuttiest hunter to come up with. Then there was the tale that one had a girl, and one was gay. But the story that got me was the one that said one of them was shagging their pet angel. Made more sense to me than just keeping one of them around. Then I hear the angel is in a male vessel. So I guess the last two could be the same.”

“For someone who said he didn’t give them much thought, sure seems like you have it worked out.” She’s trying with all her might to not even think ‘Castiel’ right now, and tries even harder to keep her breaths steady.

He shrugs, “Well, it was a bit more of a passing thought, when I came up with a plan to get them here.”

_ Shit.  _ “Why? What do you have against them?”

“You know so much, but are so stupid,” He starts as she pulls her hair up into a messy bun, “They’re the reason those winged devils are down here in the first place. And unless that look alike just happened to park in my drive, looks like my plan worked out,” He sneers as Alexa bolts out the door.

_________

Dean makes the drive in sheer silence. He’s far too focused on keeping his distance and not blowing their cover. Suddenly his phone starts ringing. Looking over at its screen, he sees it’s Sam. “Not really a good time, man.” Although he’s good at tailing, he knows at least Alexa can still see him because he keeps seeing her looking in the side mirror. He forgets about Sam’s call until he sees his phone ringing again. “Cas, tell Sam we’re a little busy and can’t talk right now, please.” He keeps driving as Alexa and Numbnuts walk into the house.

Making a u-turn and pulling into the driveway, he’s almost out of the car when he sees Alexa open the door. Then he notices her hair up,  _ Too fast, this can’t be good,  _ and grabs their weapons. He easily passes her a gun, and gets to the shadows as the door opens again.

“Oh, come on, the A I know wouldn’t get attached to anyone. Especially a couple of angel lovers,” He advances on her.

“You don’t know me. I’m not that A, I never was.” She waits until he’s a few paces in front of her, “and this is your last chance to end this easily.”

“Or what?” He challenges his steps steadily as he closes the distance between them. Then he sees Baby and grins slimily, “Told you I saw that piece of junk,” almost earning him a few organ air holes for that alone, “It's practically their calling card. You come here with them? The angel here?” His eyes almost glow at the prospect. 

“One more word and it’ll be the last thing you ever say,” Dean says with the barrel against the hunter’s head.

“Nothing like seeing one of them on their knees, am I right?” he sneers.

“I said, shut up,” Dean shoves him, “Not another word.”

“Oh,” a sickening smirk appears again, “you’re  _ that _ one.”

It’s the last thing he says as the pearl handled Colt connects solidly with his head. 

\---------

“Oh, he’s waking up,” Alexa’s voice is void of any concern. 

He blinks a few times before looking up at her. “You stay to finish me off, sweetheart?” Alexa steps aside.

“Oh, no, that’d be me,” Dean smiles seductively as his eyes turn cold.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t swing that way, pretty boy,” he winks.

Dean holds back his rage surprisingly well, for those that know how pissed he really is, at least. “Shut up, you son of a bitch.”

“Listen, you untie me, and I’ll let you watch while I,” He clears his throat, “convince A to join me,” He now winks at Alexa who visibly cringes.

Dean’s resolve breaks a little, “You sick bastard, don’t even look at her,” he hisses. 

“Oh, you want her? Way I hear it, she’ll bed anyone, although not sure why  _ you’d _ want a go,” He insinuates, “But you can go after me, I’ve been waiting for my chance for a while. Bit of a professional crush, if you know what I mean.” Any jesting is gone and his voice comes out as ice daggers.

Dean feels bile rise in his throat,  _ this sick son of a bitch may actually make me puke. _ “You know, I’ve seen a lot of messed up, and I mean  _ a lot _ , but you, you are the most disgusting, vile waste of space in a meatsuit I’ve ever seen,” His fist lands solidly and splits the skin of Ray’s cheekbone.

“Where’s the manifestation spell?” Alexa asks before Dean can land another punch. 

“All in my head, darlin’,” he answers, but keeps his eyes on Dean.

“How long have you been doing this?” She tries to pull his attention away by continuing to ask questions.

“Long as they’ve been down here.”  _ Oh, if you only knew,  _ she thinks _. _

“Why did they keep falling for it?” Dean’s voice cuts in.

His sinister laugh precedes his answer. “Now that’s the question, isn’t it? Just sent a prayer saying I had what they were looking for. Was almost too easy, because they always wanted something. Ring of holy oil, a little spell, and then put them out of their misery. Imagine, those supposedly ‘all powerful beings’ begging me, a human,” he laughs darkly, as Dean goes in for another swing.

“Dean,” he stops, but is clearly unhappy about doing so. “Take a break.”

“Lex?” he puts his anger aside, slightly behind his concern for the moment.

“Yeah, don’t need you getting too emotional, pretty boy.” Both hunters glare at his petulance.

“No one asked you, asshat,” Dean responds to the shot with another right hook.

“Dean,” She scolds and locks eyes with him.

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” He grumbles as he walks out.

“Awww, did I hurt his feelings?” The bastard has the nerve to laugh.

“I’m just done playing,” Alexa says evenly. “See you know a lot, but I know more.” she starts and doesn’t move an inch, just holds his eyes. “Enough to know that in order to manifest an angel’s wings, you need more than words. Now where did you do it?” She just has to maintain this level of stoicism. 

“Moved around,” He keeps it short.

“Where do you keep the design?” Before he responds, she adds, “We can do this the easy way, or we could just burn it all to the ground.”

He doesn’t break, but it does cause him a second’s pause. “You know, when an angel suffers that much pain, they scream with their true voices. Wonder what your pet’s last words would be?”

Alexa closes her eyes and speaks quickly. Opening them again, they’re now glowing an ethereal blue light. Stepping closer, she leans down to his eye level, her gaze unyielding, “Tell me what you did to those angels. And I will end you.”

“Isn’t that ‘or I’ll end you’?” he asks with a slightly shaky voice.

Her next words are even and come out in a commanding growl, “Oh, no, it’s a promise. Now speak.”

It’s the first true flinch of fear he’s shown. Then he’s spouting Enochian trying to bind her. He starts struggling as she laughs off the words and moves in closer. “What are you? Why isn’t it working?”

“Because I’m no angel. Like I said, you may know a lot, but I know more. Now, I noticed something while you were showing me around,” she pulls out an angel blade and twirls it gracefully in her hand, feeling much more comfortable. “Now, shall we review your answers?”


	4. Chapter 4

Dean walks outside and finds himself continuing to the attached ‘display room’. Pulling out his phone, he debates on who to call, finally he presses send and starts pacing while he waits for them to pick up. It isn’t long.

“Dean! I think this is a trap,” If he was going to say anything else, he doesn’t get the chance.

“No shit, Sammy! This is -” he stops himself.

“Dean? Are you guys ok?”

“I have a question. Say you stumbled upon some things that would mean something to a group of others. But it was a really sensitive something, right? Would you call someone of the group that you know, but don’t want to see it, or would you, um, go to one of the others, who may not like you very much?”

Sam is quiet for a moment while he tries to figure out exactly what his brother is asking, “So you want to know if I think you should call Cas or another angel?”

“Uh, yeah, basically.”

“Put Lex on,” he gets quiet.

“She’s busy.”

“Dean, how bad is this? A while ago Cas basically locked himself in your room. Now you’re calling me asking about contacting angels while Lex is ‘busy’?”

“It’s bad, Sam. This guy, he, he has them on display like trophies. Who knows who he caught?”

“You mean like their vessels? What -” Before he finishes, Dean interrupts.

“No, Sam, their wings. He catches them and then cuts out their wings, like some kind of insect or something. This is one sick bastard,” he rushes.

Sam’s voice is quiet, “Dean, that takes -.

“Sam, what do I do?” he pleads.

“Where’s Lex?”

“She sent me out of the room.”

Sam’s voice raises. “Seriously, Dean? You left her alone with him?!”

“She’s handling this better than I am, man. Help me here, please.” Dean’s pleading makes Sam put aside his worry slightly. “They, they need to go back to heaven or something. It’s not right.”

“Sam, what is it?” Cas comes in looking like he’s just thrown up.  _ Angels don’t do that, do they? _

“Shit. Cas?” Dean hears his voice through the phone.

“Yeah. Putting you on speaker.” At least Sam has a slight edge of guilt in his words.

“Dean?”  _ God, he sounds rough.  _

Dean’s heart hurts a little more in his chest. His words come out a little harsher than he means, in his need to protect him. “Cas, just, I’m sorry. Do NOT leave the bunker.”

“Why would I stay here when you are in need of assistance now?” A bit more fight back in his voice.

“Because you’re not ending up on some sonovabitch’s wall, got it? Now stay put until we call back,” he hangs up before he loses his nerve. He walks back to see how Alexa’s handling things. Walking in, he sees Ray with both eyes now swollen, a split lip, and several bleeding cuts over his body. 

“Does anyone else follow your little ideology?” He hears Alexa demand.

“No.”

“There’s no one else out there that is luring angels to their deaths?”

“No, no one else had the stomach for it.” He grunts as her fist connects with his ribs. “They didn’t know what needed to be done. Those things are monsters. You should know that.” Alexa watches him to determine if he’s telling the truth or not; he seems to be.

“You kept trophies, do you even know who they belong to?”

Ray looks up at her with as much courage as he can muster, “Fuck this. I’m done talking, bitch. Kill me or blow me.”

“Who the hell did you capture?” She slowly pulls the tip of the blade down his chest to the top of his jean’s zipper.

“It didn’t fucking matter. I was an exterminator. You don’t see them taking roll calls with cockroaches.”

Dean steps back in with a fury, “They’re not cockroaches, dammit! They don’t deserve what you did to them either. Not like that.”

“I’d give you the same option as A here, but I’d rather you kill me. Don’t want that mouth on me.”

Dean’s face is red, and she’s pretty sure that’s all he’s seeing right now. “It’d be my pleasure, but it’d be too easy.”

“Do it,” Ray taunts. “You know you want to.” Dean walks over to Alexa and holds out his hand. After returning her eyes to their natural state, she exchanges his gun for the angel blade with a nod of understanding. He weighs it in his hand a moment before turning and walking back to Ray. “The suspense is killing me,” he snarks.

“Who did this belong to?” his voice is so low it could be coming from his feet.

“Again, I didn’t ask the vermins’ names. They were too busy screaming anyway.”

Dean clinches the handle harder, “How long ago was your last one?”

“Like I told the halfbreed there, I’m done answering questions.”

Dean looks at the blade’s tip making a slight indent on Ray’s chest, then back up, “Do you know how easy this would be for me?”

“Do it,” he challenges again.

He presses the tip over the dirtbag’s heart just enough to break the skin. Pulling back to reveal a dot of red, he drops his head, then straightens and walks back to Alexa. Leaning in, he whispers, “I can’t, it’s too easy,” and hands her the blade back before walking outside.

Alexa gives a nod, then turns back to the matter at hand. She wasn’t lying before, she’s done with the games. This guy has managed to somehow set a trap for them; for her, and be the most vile human she’s ever met. The amount of info he must have on them is something to think about later. Right now though, “After you’re gone, is there anyone we should worry about?”

“The almighty A working with the Winchesters and a pet Angel, what do you have to be worried about?” he drones sarcastically. 

Alexa shrugs, “You know, you’re not wrong.” It’s all she says as she walks over to stand in front of him. “My family can handle anything, and scum like you can’t change that,” she pushes the blade through his heart and stands. Taking a breath, she walks outside to find Dean leaning against Baby, flipping his phone between his hands. 

He clears his throat when he sees her walking towards him, “Hey.”  _ Clearly he’s actually asking if the bastard is dead.  _

She leans against the fender next to him, “I’ll grab the papers and books, we can sort through them when we get home.”  _ I did what had to be done.  _ “You ok?” 

“Are you?”  _ Stupid question. _

“Probably more so than you. You call him yet?”

“Sam, a bit ago, but then he walked in. I told him to stay put and then hung up before he could argue.” He admits staring at his hands.

Alexa laughs lightly but sobers quickly, “We should ask him what to do about the wings. Burning them is probably best, but in their state, I don’t know what they could do. They may still have some power in them.”

“Wait, for real? We have no idea how long they’ve been in there though.” He clings to the thin subject change.

“I don’t know. The amount of grace it takes to bring them to this plane, and then to have them, that, I’m fairly certain there’s not a precedent for it.” Neither of them have looked at each other or moved from the bumper.

“Right,” he pauses, “I don’t want him to see them, though, is there another one we can call?”

The statement makes her turn to him with a calculating look, “I suppose so. Why don’t I handle it while you head back to the hotel? Let them know it’s over, too.”

“I can’t leave you to deal with all this,” He makes a vague attempt to gesture towards the house.

She drops her chin to her chest then lifts her head back up. “Then how about you call our boys and tell them to meet us? You can help me grab the books and stuff until they get here. We have to get it all, by the way. He was able to figure out who I was and set this whole trap for us. After that, you should head back to the hotel and I’ll send up a prayer to whoever’s listening.”

“Ah, yeah, good plan,” He unlocks his phone. “Hey, you sure you’re good? Do you know who that was?”

“I don’t think I remember him,” She steadfastly avoids the question.

Dean makes the call and is instantly put on speaker when they answer, “Dean!” Cas’s voice is ragged with worry.

“I’m fine, Cas. Alexa, um, took care of it.”

“Lex?” Sam’s voice breaks in.

“It’s ok, baby, but we need to ask you guys a favor. Is there any chance you could come meet us? We’re gonna need -” before she can finish they’re both answering ‘Yes’.

“We’ll be there in a few hours. Should we bring anything?” Sam asks.

Alexa looks over at Dean who's leaning against the bumper again, eyes closed, when Sam prompts her again with a note of urgency, “Sorry, yeah, bring the truck. There’s a lot.”

“Um sure, Baby, you ok?”

“We need to talk later Sam, I love you.” She looks at Dean again who hasn’t moved, when she hears him say he loves her too. Gently she lays a hand on Dean’s shoulder and waits for him to come back and look at her, “Need a few more minutes?”

He shakes his head, “Sammy and Cas will be here soon and we should start boxing up the books and stuff,” He stands and swipes a palm over his mouth and gets a stack of bins before starting towards the house.

Alexa feels her phone vibrate and it doesn’t take much to know it’s Sam. Instead of a text, he’s calling, “Hey, Sam,” she answers and almost sobs right then, but sucks it back in.

Worried she’s not going to give him long to explain, he rushes as soon as she stops. “Lex, I’m so sorry. We should have gone with you guys. And I know you said later, but watch Dean. Cas has me worried, so I can only imagine what my brother’s like.”

“Once you get here, they need to leave, Sam. I’m serious. I don’t know how much longer I can hold out either.” She hates the weakness she shows, but she can’t help it and knows it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

“Who the hell is this guy?” Sam asks and she can hear a car door close.

Her focus on the new part of the mission makes her strength return. “Not a problem anymore, just get here soon. I’ll watch Dean.”

“Watch yourself too. I love you, Alexa. Be there as soon as we can.” He hangs up as he sees Cas walk in, suddenly in full smiteful Angel mode. He doesn’t question it as Cas gets behind the wheel and soon they’re racing down the road.

Alexa looks up at Dean waiting in the doorway, “Dean, why don’t you stay out here in the air and I can just pass you things, yeah?”

“Don’t treat me like a child, Alexa,” His eyes turn cold to hide what he’s really feeling.

“I’m not. I’m worried about you because it’s obvious that when you saw those wings, you saw someone else’s up there with them. But Cas is safe, he’s not there, he’s on his way here with Sam right now, ok? And when they get here, you and he are going back to the hotel.” He starts to protest but Alexa doesn’t let him, “No. There will be no arguments on this. You need to be with him while Sam and I handle this.”

There’s a moment of silence before Dean reaches out and pulls her to him, “You're right. I’m sorry. But you’re not far behind me on the falling apart timeline.”

“I know, that’s why I want this done as soon as possible. Once Sam’s here, I’ll be better. We’ll work this out when we get home, you know, figure out who all he might be connected with.”

“Yeah, yeah, I just want to be home,” Dean lets his arms fall away and turns into the house. Alexa follows and soon they’ve filled five tubs of books, but have only made a small dent. “I don’t think we can take all this, Lex, it’s like a damn episode of  _ Hoarders _ in here.”

“We either take it all now and sort through it in the bunker, or we go through it all now, which will take who knows how long,” she continues to fill the tub she’s working on. Her answer is a groan followed by the crashing of a stack of books, and a ‘son of a bitch’.

More books, more papers, and more tubs later, Dean brings Alexa’s attention to his latest find, ‘Hey Lex, this looks like a hunter’s journal,” he holds out the leather bound notes. “Find any others like it?”

Alexa takes it and quickly flips through it, “If I did, they didn’t look like this, could be his,” she looks around at the various boxes, “I’m guessing we don’t have something for this kind of thing?”

“Nope, I'll bring in the rest,” he walks back out to Baby. A minute later he comes back in with a few more, “You think he has any around here? Doesn’t look like he was into much storage, though. Should we tell them to pick up more?”

Alexa looks at her phone, “No time, if I know them, they’re probably going to be here in the next ten minutes.”

“Oh, ok, so then maybe we need to start going through these?” Dean is clearly not thrilled with this option.

Alexa closes her eyes and rolls her neck, “I don’t know. If I knew what was in these I could sort them faster, but half of these are in another language, half of those being like Enochian shorthand, then the range of topics I can’t even begin to catalogue. And don’t get me started,” Dean stops her.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry I began that.” Just then a set of headlights light up the window and they both rush to the door and see the truck pull in, Cas behind the wheel. In a flash, they’re at their boys’ respective doors and wrapped in strong arms. They just stand there a moment before breaking apart to get back to work and wrap this up. “Ok, so we got some tubs already started, but there’s a ton more,” Dean starts.

“Dean, stop,” Sam breaks in, “Load them in Baby and head home.”

“Sam,” Dean tries, but not strongly.

“No, Dean, you’ve done enough. You and Cas get out of here.” That’s all he says before walking confidently into the house to bring out the haul.

“Dean, I’ll help you load Baby, but then I believe that’s the best plan,” Cas says gently.

“Um, yeah, fine, ok, this way,” he starts to lead them to the house when Cas sways. “Cas?” Dean’s holding him upright in a panic.

“Son of a bitch!” Alexa yells, So stupid, of course he’s got it warded! Cas, stay back by the truck, we’ll load up Baby, and then you guys get the hell out of here as fast as you can, understand?” 

“Yes,” Dean helps him back to the truck while Sam is already bringing out a couple of bins to slide into the Impala’s backseat. “I apologize, Dean.”

“Don’t apologize, you idiot, you’ve done nothing wrong, it was this asshole,” Dean reassures him.

“Dean,” Cas stops him after he’s leaning against the passenger side door, “How bad is it?”

“It’s best if you don’t know, man, ok? Just, just stay here, stay safe, and then we’ll be home soon,” He leans in and presses a gentle kiss to the angel’s temple. “Castiel, I love you so damn much.”

Cas smirks at hearing his full name, “It must really be bad.”

“Ok, I’ll bring Baby alongside you in a minute and we’ll head home,” Dean ignores it and walks back towards the house. He stops when Sam and Alexa close her back doors.

“All set, Dean, you guys get out of here, man,” Sam says, straightening.

“She’s full?”

“Even her trunk, we’ll stop by the hotel and get all our stuff before heading home ourselves, so don’t worry about it, just get our boy home,” Alexa reassures him.

“Um, yeah, ok,” he stands a minute, still dumbfounded, “Thanks.”

“No need, Jerk, just go.”

“Yeah, take care of our girl, Bitch,” He turns to Alexa but can’t begin to fathom what to say to her, so just settles on, “I’ll see you at home, Lex.”

She gives him a slight wave, “You too, Dean.” With that, Dean gets behind the wheel and backs up next to Cas. They watch as the angel gets in, and then the tail lights turn left before fading in the distance. A second later, Alexa feels Sam wrap her in his arms again. She wants to break, needs to, but she can’t, “Not yet Sam, there’s too much to do. I can’t fall apart yet.”

He steps back and looks at her; in just a day she looks as though she hasn’t slept in a week, “Lex,” he starts, but stops when she shakes her head, “Ok, what do you want to take care of first?”

“Call an angel, well, first we need to break the sigils, there’s going to be the binding one, the manifestation spell, which is another four sigils, I think, and then lastly the cloaking spell. I’d guess the cloaking one is on the shed, but I don’t know about the others.”

“Um, ok, yeah,” They walk in the house and start looking around, “Lex, can we just break all of these? It’ll probably be faster.”

“Yeah, I messed with a couple to render them useless, but I couldn’t get to all of them, obviously,” She wipes at her eye, hoping Sam doesn’t see the movement. “Once these are broken, is there an angel you trust enough to call?”

“No, well, Cas, but, um, I know Naomi, but she’s pretty much running the place now. I guess Duma would probably be the one then. Just let me know when to make the call, babe,” he says as he continues to slash through markings.

“Ok, then we load up this shit as fast as possible and get the hell out of here.”

“Yeah, absolutely.” Finally, Sam turns to Alexa, “I think that’s the last one.”

“I think so, too, at least in here.” She straightens to perfect posture, “I’ll um, take care of the one on the shed.”

“Lex, I can do that,” he offers.

“No, I’ve seen it already, Sam, there’s no need for you to as well,” She walks out.

Sam follows, but takes out a bin to the truck before praying from the tailgate. “Uh, Duma, this is Sam Winchester, we need some help on this one. We just want to do the right thing so if you can, uh, stop by?” He opens his eyes and looks around. With a sigh, he stands and closes the gate. Turning, he’s startled by the shorter dark haired woman standing there.

“What do you need now?”

He raises his hands, “Hey, like I said, just trying to do the right thing. My brother and girlfriend were on a case, a trap really, when they found this psycho. He um, well, it’s something you guys should handle instead of us,” He leads her to the shed and notices Alexa walk out.

“I’ll take it from here, Sam,” She nods.

“Um, ok, Alexa, Duma, Duma, Alexa.” The women nod to each other cooly. “Ok, then, I’ll um, go,” he walks away after a moment’s hesitation. He wants to stay, but he also wants to respect Alexa’s wish to handle it. He’d trust Balthazar more than Duma alone with her, but unfortunately that’s not an option.

“You’re...” She starts.

“A vessel and supposed to be dead? Yeah, not the time. Look, what this guy did was cruel and disgusting, so this is your warning. It’s not our place to handle this, but they should be given some kind of respectful end,” She opens the door.

“I’m sure that I can,” Her words stop as the door opens and she looks inside. “Oh, this,” Her eyes are wide and she runs back outside.

Alexa is beside her, “You ok? Look, I can take care of it if...” She’s cut off by a hand on her throat.

“How dare you. You will not take care of this. Your kind did this to my brothers and sisters. That mutilation was carried out by human hands. You will not lay an ape finger on them.” Her hand lets go and Alexa falls to her knees gasping.

She stands and looks the female angel squarely in the eye, daring her to try it again. “Listen, I didn’t do that. My boys didn’t do that. I killed the monster that did that. He said he was doing it for me. I will forever deal with the guilt of those angels’ deaths as if they came from my own hands. I could have lost my friend, a family member, to him. I wasn’t about to let him continue. And in case you forgot, WE were the ones that called you down here so that they could get the proper respect. WE are not the monsters here. I think it’s best that you remember who has shown you more respect than you have ever given us.”

Duma is about to say something when another angel appears, this one with short cropped white hair and a fitted grey suit, “That’s enough Duma, this girl is not a threat here.” Duma starts to say something, but is cut off with a glare, “I said, that’s enough. Now take care of this. It’s a job for our own.” When the subordinate angel begins to enter the shed, the fiercer looking one turns to Alexa. “I know who you are, and I want to say that you have shown great respect here tonight, and I apologize you were not shown the same. Please pass on my regards to Castiel and the Winchesters.” 

With that, she’s gone again and Alexa starts to see if she’s needed in the shed, but decides it’s truly an angel matter now, and she just wants to get back home. She walks back into the house and sees Sam halfheartedly putting books into a box. When the door closes, his head snaps up and he quickly moves to her, “I was worried. I don’t exactly trust Duma, but she and Naomi are the only ones I know by name.”

“Yeah, pretty sure Naomi just stopped Duma from killing me in a temper tantrum,” she says off-handedly, but Sam is defensive in an instant.

“What?” He snaps. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“It’s fine. After Duma almost tossed her cookies when I opened the door, I went to see if she was ok and she choked me,” He’s tilting her head up to check her throat, but she bats his hand away, “I said I’m fine. She was angry and took it out on me. The other one stopped her and actually apologized to me. She also wanted me to pass on her regards to you boys.”

“Are they still there?”

“I assume so. It's an angel matter now, let's just get this junk and go home.”

“Lex, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you that this involved A. It may-” She stops him there.

“This wasn't just about me. He wanted all of us, our entire family. He was just out here waiting. Who knows how many angels could’ve been spared if he had the balls to just confront us sooner, or how many more could’ve had their lives ended like that if we hadn’t come. Just, later.” With that she ends the mini word vomit and gets back to the task at hand. Sam watches her as she moves books from stacks into her own box. Each movement seems to take everything she has and his heart aches.  _ She looks like she’s about to pass out. _ This has taken so much from both her and Dean.  _ I’ll have to talk to Cas about planning some kind of way to get them back to themselves.  _ He walks over to her and stills her motions by just wrapping his arms around her. Everything she’s been holding onto breaks free, and she sags into the embrace with a choked sob, “Dammit, Sam, I said later.” It’s several minutes before she can even pull back for a real breath.

After a few more of those, she’s able to breathe normally as Sam wipes her cheeks dry, “Hey baby, it’s ok. It’s over.”

She shakes her head, “No. Not yet. We have to go through this to make sure Cas is safe. He set this up, Sam, he knew us, probably planted the idea for your friend to reach out to you.”

“Lex, that’s not-,” But she cuts off his words again.

“No, he somehow knew I was A. Some twisted version, but still. I don’t know, I don’t remember him. What if I’m the reason he was able to do that, to track you down, and try to get you here?”

Sam pulls her close to him again, “Shhh, Lex, shhh. It didn’t work how he planned though. He’s dead, we’re not. Cas is safe, the wings are being taken care of. You and Dean did good. You kept Cas and I safe, and looked out for each other, but now Cas and I are here for you. That’s how family works, sweetheart.”

“I just want to go home,” She sobs into his shoulder. 

“I know, baby, we will soon,” Sam gives her back a few comforting rubs before pulling away and getting back to work. Hopefully it shouldn’t take much more time; being here is putting him on edge. They work in silence until there’s a knock. Sam opens it to find Duma standing there, “Oh. Hello, is everything all right?”

Duma straightens in an act of composing herself. “I wanted to thank you for alerting us to this matter, and am informing you that it has been handled appropriately. We will take care of it further after the two of you leave.”

Sam still hovers a bit protectively over Alexa, “We’re really sorry for whoever was in there, that wasn’t okay at all.”

“Yes, well,” her eyes flick to Alexa, “Thank you.” With that, she’s gone. 

A few more hours and he’s lifting the final box into the truck bed. “Ready, Lex?” She comes out with a collection of file folders, “Oh, no. Put those in a bag or something babe, you’re done now.”

“Sam, I can organize these on the drive though.” The intent is there, but the power behind it is long gone.

Even though he sees that, he goes along with it. “No, Alexa. You can sleep on the drive. You look like you’ve been up for a week straight and about to fall over. Take a break.”

“But, Sam,” She tries.

“No. Do you want to spend the rest of the night in the hotel, or -“ He is cut off by her answer.

“Home. I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to burn this place to the ground.” 

He nods at her firm answer. “That may be the plan. You heard Duma, the angels are taking care of cleanup on this one.”

“Yeah,” She puts the files in the foot space of the passenger side, “You ready to go, Sam?”

“Definitely. We’ll be home soon.” As they leave the house behind them, a sudden burst of light fills the rearview mirror as the structure ignites in flames. Alexa directs him to the motel where they quickly gather her and Dean’s things before getting back in the truck. “You hungry or need to stop for anything, baby?” He asks as Alexa gets in and rests her head against the window.

“Sam, please stop with the ‘baby’s’. I don’t want anything except to get home and in our bed as soon as possible. And as soon as Dean lets him out of arms’ reach long enough, I want to hug Cas. Now, will you please just drive?” The outburst happens without her even opening her eyes. 

Even though he knows she’s not really mad at him, she’s just stressed and tired, he still can’t stop staring at her while she yells. When she’s done, he blinks and answers, “Yeah, sorry,” he almost says more, but stops with, “I, I love you,” then turns the key and starts the drive back.

After a few moments of shifting and trying to get comfortable, Alexa speaks up, “I’m sorry, Sam. I didn’t mean to snap. I just...” She stops to blink back tears threatening to spill.

Sam pulls over and turns off the truck. In a flash, he’s pulling her into his side and shushing her tears, “Sweetheart, it’s ok. I know this was a lot.”

“What if - one of them could have been Cas, Sam. I could have helped him kill all those angels. This could all be on me too,” she sobs.

“No. Lex, look at me. You did not do that. Even if you helped him with something, you didn’t do what he did. And that wasn’t Cas. Cas is safe,” He pulls her in again and smoothes her hair. Her sobs are absorbed in his shirt until they slow. With a kiss pressed to her forehead, Sam slides back behind the wheel. Alexa somehow curls up with her back to the door and head resting against the window and seat back. Sam places a hand on her ankle, which is as much of a comfort for him as it is for her, and continues home. After a few minutes of silence, he looks over and sees Alexa asleep. 

In a few hours, they’re pulling into the garage next to Baby. Alexa opens the door and stops to look at the files on the floorboard, “I’m just gonna go to bed,” She says quietly without looking back up at him. 

Sam takes a deep breath and follows, instantly noticing the unnatural silence of the bunker. On instinct Sam pulls his gun and calmly walks room to room, “Lex?” his voice just above a whisper. Reaching the kitchen, he sweeps the room, “Dean? Cas?” he asks the dark room. With no answer and seeing the room clear, he continues down the hall. About to try the door to Dean and Cas’s room, he’s interrupted by the door to his own room opening. He steadies his aim.

“Sam, what the hell?” Alexa hisses in surprise at the firearm in her face. Sam stares with wide eyes and gaping mouth. “Sam?” Alexa takes a step, slowly reaching out and lowering the gun. “What happened?”

He watches every movement, unblinking, “wha-I-it was so quiet,” He looks around the hall again.

“Sam, it’s the middle of the night, of course it’s quiet. Now, come on, before you wake up Dean,” She pulls him into their room and watches him a moment.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean, I was just scared you guys were gone.”

“Like what Lucifer showed you?” She asks carefully.

“A bit,” He admits, blinking and turning his eyes to the ceiling, obviously unprepared for the sudden threat of tears.

“Sam, I’m sorry too. I got a text from Cas saying they were home and to not disturb them,” she shrugs. “I just figured that was pretty much a given without saying, so I didn’t. I was honestly on my way to shower in hopes that you would be asleep when I got back.”

Sam sighs, “Baby, you can’t -” he starts.

“I know. I do. Once we are positive this thing is closed, we take a break. All four of us. Maybe we can meet up with Sarah for a few days, give Dean some time on the beach,” she grins.

Sam nods, “Yeah, I think we’ll all need some time after this.” Pulling her in for a kiss, he lets go, “Shower in the morning. Let’s get some sleep and wrap this thing up tomorrow.”

Alexa wants to metaphorically wash this day from her skin, but at the same time she wants Sam’s warmth up against her more. “Any chance we can get Dean to fly?”

“Honestly, this might be a good enough reason for him to do it,” He yawns.

Alexa takes his hand, “Let’s just get some sleep tonight, sweetie.”


	5. Chapter 5

In the morning, it’s not an easy start. Not surprisingly, Sam and Alexa are the first ones moving around. They wordlessly start the coffee and sit, waiting for the other couple to join them. While they wait, Sam does a quick search of a few databases for their latest psycho’s name, and Alexa sends a couple of texts, one to Mary and one to Sarah giving them some very vague details about their idea. After a while, Sam’s stomach growls and he clears his throat apologetically. “I’ll make you something,” Alexa gets up.

“No, we should wait for Dean and Cas,” He protests.

“Babe, I have no idea when they’re going to tear themselves away from each other long enough to make it out here. I’ll make us something now, and then when they join us, if they join us, I can make them something,” She sets to work before waiting for an answer.

When their plates are long cleared and another carafe of coffee made, a rumpled angel in boxers and a t-shirt enters the kitchen. While Alexa and Sam watch for Dean to follow, they miss Cas beeline to the coffee pot and pour two cups. He re-enters their field of vision as he leaves once again. “Did you get the feeling he didn’t even see us?” Sam snickers.

Alexa laughs, “Oh no, he only had eyes for the coffee. I’m surprised Dean let him come alone though.”

“Maybe he put him to sleep to be able to move,” he mocks seriousness. Alexa laughs harder. “Hey, how about we go watch a movie or something until they’re fully functioning?”

“Are you trying to Netflix and chill me, Winchester?”

“Course not,” He winks. “But if I were… what would be my success rate?” He grins.

Alexa can’t help but laugh at him. “Ugh, ok, fine, but only a show. And making out.”

“Not a movie?”

“Not a movie. We have things to do, and the faster we get them done, the faster we can get to our vacation.”

“Vacation?” Dean’s voice startles them.

Looking away from Alexa, Sam sees his brother dressed beside the now fully clothed angel, heading to the coffee pot to refill their mugs. “Uh, yeah. We thought once we wrap this thing up, we could use an actual vacation.”

Dean processes that for a minute, then nods, “Yeah, you two should get away for a little bit.”

Alexa has moved to start making breakfast again when she speaks up, “Not just Sam and I, Dean, we thought it would be good for all four of us,” She notices Cas’s eyes move to hers, in piqued interest. “And specifically, we were thinking of meeting up with Sarah and the family, maybe spend a few days on the beach,” She pretends she doesn’t see the way his eyes light up, then bounce to Cas and before coming back to hers.

“Oh,” he takes a sip. “Uh, yeah, that could be nice.” Cas just shakes his head with a soft smile, his hand mysteriously dipping beneath the table. “And hey,” Dean stands, “I can make breakfast, you don’t need to,”

Alexa turns to him with an angry spatula, “Sit. I am making you breakfast, then we are tying this thing up, and packing. I’ve already texted Mary and Sarah anyway.”

“What?” the brothers echo.

“Yeah, I didn’t give many details, just that I wanted to take a break from all the wedding stuff and thought a family beach trip would be relaxing. Mary even offered to field any hunts that may come up while we’re gone, so that we’re not disturbed.”

The three men look at each other in disbelief before Cas speaks up, “I think that’s a wonderful idea. Before we leave, we should thank Mary.”

Beside him, Dean sputters, clearly not expecting his angel to agree so easily, “Well, I mean, we’ll be gone like a week, I mean with driving and then spending a few days, we can’t be away that long.”

“It will be at least a week, we won’t be driving,” Dean’s eyes become saucers, but doesn’t dare interrupt the angry huntress, “And that’s exactly what we’ll do. We need this. Sam and I are about to get married, and a vacation is more than reasonable to ask for after what we just went through. And even more for the two of you.”

Dean gulps, “I-Why can’t we drive?”

“Because it’s too important. We don’t run from things, but in this case we need to run to a little getaway. We need to regroup and appreciate why we fight as hard as we do. We need to just be a family right now, not hunters.”

“We could go to the cabin,” Dean tries to protest. When Alexa doesn’t budge, he pretends to mull it over and with a dramatic sigh agrees, “Fine. But I’m gonna have like ten of those mini bottles.” He emphasizes his mock attitude with a forkful of eggs. Cas sends her a thankful smile as he takes a slice of Dean’s toast. 

Once breakfast is finished, they hit the many, many books and files. It takes about fifteen minutes before a strangled growl draws everyone’s attention. “I can’t do this, I need some kind of system, there’s just too much here,” Alexa huffs in frustration.

The three share looks before Sam braves a response, “What were you thinking, babe?”

“I don’t know. These files all seem to be regular cases, but he was convinced they had some angelic connection. I haven’t found a single tie to anything heavenly, so how did he get to the angels?”

Dean and Cas stop their sorting of books to join her and Sam at the table. “Okay, so why don’t we just all focus on files and journals? I mean, the books can be gone through at any point, and so far none of them seem to have any specific connection, anyway,” Dean offers.

“Yes,” Cas agrees, “They seem to just be simple spell books and such; however, in conjunction with each other, they can prove slightly more powerful. We can help with files.”

“Ok,” Sam takes over, “So the plan is to focus on personal accounts. I say we start by putting everything in chronological order so we can establish a timeline, and hopefully create a list of suspects to follow up on. Sound good?” He asks the room, but focuses on Alexa.

“Let’s separate by year, I think that’ll be the best way to comb through everything without getting overwhelmed,” Alexa says confidently.

“All right, guys, let’s get to it,” Sam claps his hands and they start sorting through the many files. They put journals in one pile, and case files are laid out based on year as suggested. With all four of them on one task, it doesn’t take nearly as long, and soon they’re all sitting with a stack. As they go through them, they each end up with a notepad to compile a list of any names that come up that could be a lead. File stacks from 2004 through the first half of 2008 have zero mentions of angels, but do reference a few demons and hunters that make their way to the notepads, some get immediately crossed off with personal knowledge of their deaths. Around late September 2008, mentions of angels start appearing. The atmosphere in the room quickly changes as they all focus a little more.

After abruptly closing a folder and slapping it on the table, Dean stands, “I’m hungry, who wants lunch? Cas, wanna grab something with me?”

The angel eyes him with a tilted head, but goes to his side anyway, “Of course, Dean.”

“Awesome, we’ll be back,” He pulls Cas towards the garage without looking back.

With that, they leave. “Well, that wasn’t suspicious at all,” Sam mutters.

Alexa is already out of her seat and skimming the pages, “Shit. I think I know why.”

“Why?” All concern for shielding his worry goes out the window.

“September 18th, outside of Pontiac, Illinois. Field cleared as if a bomb went off. Buried in the center, an empty coffin which appears to have been broken into, or out of. Nearby gas station abandoned and all windows and glass shattered,” She stops reading.

“Son of a bitch,” is all Sam can get out.

“That was Dean, wasn’t it?” Sam just nods his head.

“Did, did he know about Cas, then?” He manages to ask.

“No, he wasn’t sure of names somehow. When we, when we questioned him, he just mentioned an angel, never by name.”

“But he knew about Dean and I, and you technically, why didn’t the coward just face us?” Sam yells angrily. “How many angels would still be here if he just had the balls to confront us in person!” He’s pacing now.

“Sam, stop. Remember what you told me last night? This isn’t on you, either. He was a coward, but why did the angels keep falling for his trick? There has to be something we haven’t found yet. He had to have some major bargaining chip.”

“What?” he snaps as he manages to stop pacing, but can’t keep his rage from still boiling under the surface.

“I don’t know. But we’ll find it. Let’s just keep going through our stacks and see what we find. We don’t have all that many left. Do yours jump months at a time too?” She tries to get him back on topic.

Sam takes a few calming breaths and runs his hands through his hair before answering, “Yeah, maybe the journals fill in the blanks?”

“Well, he doesn’t seem the type to get rid of anything,” She says looking around the room.

“Yeah, well,” He sits back down. “Was it just me or did Dean agree to our break way too easily?”

Alexa chuckles, “It’s never hard to convince someone to agree to something they already want, Sam. Even before this one, it was starting to wear on him. Lucifer and you, then me, now Cas, he needs a break, even if he tells himself it’s for us.”

“Damn, you know my brother almost a little too well,” he smiles. “Guess it’s true; takes one to know one.” Alexa just shrugs with an innocent smile of her own. They return to their work until Dean and Cas come back with pizza. The trip may have taken longer than usual from the nearby shop, but no one mentions it. In fact, not much is mentioned at all until they reluctantly return to the mission in front of them.


	6. Chapter 6

“Um, guys, I may have found our connection,” Dean speaks up.

Putting their own works down, they look up expectantly as Sam asks, “Well, what is it, Dean?”

He runs a hand over the back of his neck, then slowly looks up at Alexa, “You remember a guy named Nick? What was his last name?”

“What?” is all she can manage.

“It’s a little too much of a coincidence, but um, this guy contacted A for a case. Said ‘was helpful on general info, but like the others didn’t want to get her hands dirty’. So he contacted a Nick Kuznetskov?” He tries to pronounce.

“K, U, Z, N, E, T, S, K, O, V, right?” She spells out.

“Ah, yeah,” He looks uncomfortably at Sam, “Said he had him act as middleman.”

“Lex,” Sam speaks up, “you said you met on a case, right? When?” He tries to ask as gently as possible.

Alexa sits in shock, “No. No no no, that can’t, he, he loved me. I loved him. He wouldn’t.” The other three exchange looks before Sam decides his eyes need to stay on Alexa. Dean and Cas exchange a look, and almost leave, when Alexa comes back online and speaks, “Oh, my God that’s it. He’s the only one who knew Sam’s name. He fucking used me. Our entire relationship. It was a lie,” She looks at her wrist and Sam covers the lines with his hand. “I need to be alone,” She says and stands. Sam’s hand falls away as she walks to the hall.

Sam stands, “I’ll be back. Lex?”

“Alone,” she calls back, hearing his words.

Sam sits back down and runs his hand through his hair. “Dean, are you sure you read that right?”

“Sam, it’s not some foreign language I need to translate, that’s what it says here,” He holds up the book. “This, Nick, he uh, they were really serious? Or I guess he pretended to be?”

“She lived with him, even told him about me, she loved him. Probably the only other guy she actually did.” The words are bitter as he says them.

“Son of a bitch, so he was either playing double agent, or we hope triple agent?” His hand comes up to run over his mouth.

“I don’t know. Maybe this asshole,” He waves his hand in the general direction of the journal, “was playing both of them.”

“How much do you remember about their relationship?” Dean asks cautiously.

Sam groans and misses the angel slip from the room, “I don’t know, it was a while ago now and I wasn’t exactly happy about hearing it. There were also a few glasses of something in the mix. But, um,” he thinks, “They met on a case and flirted, but she left. He kept asking her out and eventually when he hijacked a hunt, she agreed.” He looks down at his hands as he remembers, “She was so happy talking about him, there’s gotta be something we’re missing. She already lost him horribly, she shouldn’t have to lose him all over again. Not like this.”

Dean doesn’t try to hide his sympathy, “I get it, but this guy knew she was A and that she dated you, that’s pretty hard to ignore.”

Sam’s hair is a wreck from his fingers twisting through the strands, “I know. But if he knew about us, why didn’t she? Wouldn’t he have been like ‘Hey, Sam’s actually alive’?”

He says it as gently as he can, but still says it, “Sammy, if you were working a girl, or actually had feelings for her, would you tell her the love of her life was actually a phone call away?”

“Yes! Because if I actually cared about her I’d want her to be happy,” If he had an imaginary lightbulb above his head, it just would’ve flipped on, “Son of a bitch! He was working her, wasn’t he?”

Dean shrugs and watches his brother’s minor meltdown carefully, “Looking more and more like it.”

\-----------

Cas slowly walks to Alexa and Sam’s room. He stops at the door and listens, expecting to hear sobs, or even the crashing of various items against the walls. Instead he hears nothing, which causes even more worry. He lightly knocks and listens. There's a shuffling before the door opens to reveal a slightly disheveled Alexa. Her usually bright eyes are dull when they turn to him, “I, um, just wanted to make sure you were ok.”

Her voice cracks harshly, “I’m not. That asshole had me - I thought - I loved him, I thought he loved me, too. You’re not ok after finding something like that out, Cas,” The anger is in the forefront of her tone as she finishes. The angel doesn’t answer, deciding instead to wrap his arms around her. She sags against his solid vessel, releasing all her pent up feelings. After a few moments, her outbursts of cries and slamming fists stop.

“You are ok, Alexa. You’re safe, loved, and where you’re supposed to be. That man was not worthy of you, and I deeply apologize for the pain you experienced, and are currently feeling, because of him.” She nods against his chest, and he just continues to rub soothing circles on her back.

After a few minutes, she pulls back, “Thank you, Cas. I just, I thought I was so good, had it all figured out. And I never even suspected that he was playing me. Never thought that his questions were just digging for information. I was so stupid,” she shakes her head trying to clear the tears that form in her eyes once again.

“Alexa, you are far from stupid. There is a chance that Nick had real feelings for you,” Cas tries.

“No. Thank you, Cas, but no. Since hearing his name again, I ran through our relationship. He didn’t care about me. He saw me as a trophy to hold over the heads of other hunters. He had the famed Sam Winchester’s first love, a powerful secret in itself, and kept tabs on me. I took it as us being secure enough to work separately, I thought it was different from Sam because what I had with Sam wasn’t the real thing. Again, I was so stupid.”

Cas takes a moment to give her a calculating look. After making up his mind, he pats her on the shoulders, “Then as Dean would say, we should kick this in the ass,” he winks.

Alexa chuckles, “I appreciate it, Cas, but I think I’m going to take a few more minutes to myself, thank you.”

“Of course,” He pulls her in for another quick embrace before returning to the brothers.

“How is she?” Dean asks, seeing him walk back in.

Before he answers, Sam jumps in, “Wait, why were you allowed to talk to her?”

“I didn’t mean to overstep, Sam, I just wanted to give the two of you privacy as well as make sure she was okay, which she will be. She requested a few more moments alone, though.”

Dean just nods, and goes back to reading. “She’s all right though? Seriously?” Sam asks.

Cas gives a small smile at the show of affectionate concern, “Yes. And even though she asked for a little while longer alone, I don’t believe she would object to you checking on her.” Sam nods, taking in the advice, then stands with what sounds like a mumbled ‘Right’, before leaving the room. The angel watches Sam leave when his eyes catch on the elder Winchester, slumped in his chair, eyes no longer reading the words in front of them, “What?”

“Nothing,” he shrugs it off.

“Dean,” Cas says in a low tone, seeing the anger rising on Dean’s face.

“This son of a bitch basically kept her in a false prison, made her feel like they were in love, just to have, what, possession of her?” His anger coming to a head. “I swear if that bastard wasn’t already dead, he would be real soon for what he did.”

Cas walks over and places a firm hand on the hunter’s jaw. With a sigh, the green eyes close as he leans into the touch. “Dean, I find I agree with you in this instance. Alexa is second guessing their entire relationship as well.”

Dean looks up at him again, “Really? Just because his name was in some book?”

“It may have been a rash conclusion, but she got there on her own. Perhaps we should give her and Sam some space?” The angel straightens back up and returns to his seat.

Dean picks up the journal again. “We’ll stay here and try to figure this out, at least until they say otherwise. We need to figure out if there’s anyone else that knew about this, and the sooner we get this sorted, the sooner we get to relax in the sun and sand.”

“You’re really willing to go?” he asks curiously.

“Well, yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Falsely offended.

“Dean, you’re not exactly fond of flying, and if we’re being completely honest, you’re usually not overly thrilled with taking a break, either.”

“C’mon, Cas, that’s not true,” He rolls his eyes.

“Dean,” His voice is soft but steady, “No one’s expecting or asking you to be ok after this one; you don’t need to pretend to be. Especially in front of me, you know you can’t anyway,” He leans back in his seat waiting for Dean to react. What he doesn’t expect is for the hunter to let out a deep sigh while leaning forward and resting his head in his hands. Cas feels the pain wash over him and has to close his own eyes at the onslaught. He staggers back to his feet and crosses over to his lover, and wraps him in a strong embrace. “Oh, Dean,” His hand runs through the short strands of hair. “I’m right here with you and we’re ok. This isn’t going to happen again.”

Dean’s words come out choked, “All I could think about was that it could’ve been you at some point.”

“But it wasn’t,” Cas quickly tries to comfort him.

“But it could’ve been. All those times that I was an ass and let you go off on your own, or when we had some stupid fight,” His words are cut off by an angel’s hand covering his mouth.

“Stop it, Dean. It didn’t happen and now it won’t. Not any longer,” He continues to try and comfort him.

“Are we interrupting something?” They hear Alexa say and pull apart.

“Ah,” Dean fumbles, and wipes his nose with the back of his hand, “no. nothing. All good. How about you guys?” He sniffs.

“We’re ok,” Sam answers. “We think it’s best to wrap this up and head to Sarah’s though.”

“Dean and I agree. Hopefully, this ends with him.”

“I don’t know,” Sam looks around at their piles, “There’s a lot to go through still.”

“Have you guys found out anything else since I left?”

Dean and Cas exchange looks, “Uh, not really.”

“Ok, then we need to get started,” Alexa picks up the book she was looking through previously and sits back down. The three men look at her a little taken aback.

“You sure, Lex?” Dean ventures.

“Yes. No matter what happened with Nick, or the past in general, I’m here now, with you, where I’m supposed to be. I know what’s real this time,” She finishes with a look to Cas. He gives her a small nod of encouragement, letting her know that he got the message. With that, Sam takes his seat as well and they get back to work.

_______________________

“How many more of these things do we have?” Dean asks with a stretch.

“Too many,” is Sam’s answer. They’re all starting to get a little worn out. “We need a new way to go about this, I think. There’s still too many holes that aren’t making sense to me.”

Dean sits up and runs his hands over his face, “So, break? Call someone else in?”

Alexa quickly stands, “Be right back.” With that, she’s out of the room. The men shrug and continue their minor break until she gets back to explain her outburst. In a few moments she does return, with a box.

“Not another box, Lex,” Dean groans.

Alexa laughs, “This one is a little different, Dean. This one is mine.” 

“Lex?” Sam asks cautiously. 

Instead of answering she pulls out a spiral notebook with a lock, “This is the journal I kept during the time I met and dated Nick. Along with my laptop from that time as well. I’m the connection here,” she makes eye contact with all three, “and we should be able to find out exactly how in these.”

“Babe, that’s a great idea, but are you sure you want to look through them?” Sam voices his concern.

“Yes, Sam, we need to do this.”

“But, Lex, he-” Sam can’t exactly finish his thought because he’s not sure exactly what he’s trying to say, Alexa finishes for him.

“Sam, let me make it easier for you, if I had known you were alive and a phone call away, I would not have stayed with Nick. As much as I loved him, I kept comparing him to you. YOU have always been the one for me.”

Sam can’t seem to say anything to that and just tugs her against his chest. Dean breaks the moment with reason, “Alexa, you did love him though. This won’t be easy.”

She nods with a small smile, “I know, but it’ll be ok. Now give me the list of the people and I’ll see if I know them.”

It only takes a few names before one of them comes up in her laptop’s search. “This one,” she says, looking up. “This guy Gordon Walker, he contacted me about some messed up stuff. I turned him down at first.”

“At first?” Cas questions.

“Yeah, he gave me this weird feeling. It honestly scared me a little. He started talking about demon blood and going after this demon leader.”

“That would’ve been me,” Sam says, clearing his throat.

“What?” Alexa runs through their story again trying to recall, but Dean beats her to it.

“Yeah. Gordon was nuts. He came after Sammy and we had to take him out,” Dean draws the attention to himself.

“What information did you give him?” Sam asks, wondering if she somehow helped someone that was trying to kill him.

“I gave him this fake exorcism spell. It was close, but was more of a forgetting spell to those who said it.”

The boys exchange looks before Dean speaks up, “Wait, so you made Gordon Noisy Cricket himself every time he used that spell?” he laughs.

Alexa shrugs, “Well neurolize, but yeah, I told you I didn’t trust him.”

“Wait, you got that?” Sam asks, kind of impressed.

Alexa looks at him curiously, “you didn’t? Men In Black, dude. I can quote all three.”

“Um, wow, ok. Who else?” Sam easily shakes off the awkwardness with a slight smile.

“Let’s see, this one seems familiar,” she types, “Wait, here. He was one of the hunters that reached out to me the first time I met Nick,” She turns the screen to Sam and reaches for her journal. She flips to a page and starts reading, “Jeff has a secret. I’m not sure what it is, but I’m starting to think he isn’t who he says he is. I’ll have to call Bobby and see what he says.” She looks up as she finishes.

“So Bobby knew these guys?” Dean asks gruffly.

“No. I followed up with him. Bobby said he ran into him a couple of times and he didn’t trust him. So I broke ties with Jeff and his crew as well.”

“What about Nick?”

“Bobby didn’t know him. He thought he was a newer hunter,” She chuckles to herself remembering something. “He also reminded me to be careful and not to get taken with some pretty boy.”

Dean laughs, “Good ole Bobby, always the dad. So where’s this Jeff now?”

Alexa clears her throat, “He’s dead.”

“What?” They echo.

“He died during the mist case,” she admits solemnly. “They all did. Except me.”

Sam jumps in, “I don’t think anyone that has solid connections to Nick or this douche are still alive.”

“So what? That’s it?” Dean suspects it’s too clean of an ending.

“Dean, you just heard her say that the guy that introduced her to Nick was killed by Amara.”

“I’m just saying, where the hell was this guy during that? Was he just some mastermind puppeteer pulling the strings, or did he do more?”

“Dean, he stayed off the grid. He mentions how it became harder and harder to gain support as time went on. He mentions that Jeff was one of his last ‘minions’, he finger quotes, “trying to capture angels,” Cas reads from a leather bound journal. He lowers his voice to a dangerous tone, “Here’s also a great deal about ‘the Winchesters’ in this, I think you two have just as much of a connection to him as Alexa.”

“We do NOT know this asshat, Cas,” Dean growls.

“Dean, I meant that he knew you. Or at least of you. This man was very dangerous.”

“Ok, so is there anyone on that list that’s still around, besides us?”

Alexa reads over the list, “Do you know a Roy or a Walt? Why don’t they have last names?”

“Um, if they’re the same ones, then they killed us once. Then Roy was killed by the British Men of Letters…” Sam says calmly.

Alexa looks between them with large eyes, then shakes her head, “I may not get used to things like that. But, um, so Walt could still be a connection. Let me run a search through my stuff, Sam, you -” is all she gets out before he jumps in.

“On it,” He sits at his own laptop and starts typing.

“Is there anyone else?” Dean asks.

Alexa looks up from her screen and looks over the list again, “What about a Josh Linwell? Looks like he was in the Montana area.”

They exchange looks, “Doesn't ring any bells,” Dean says.

“Ok, then, you two look into him while Sam and I finish updating on Walt.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Dean gets up and comes back with his laptop which pulls Cas’ attention from the journal he was reading through. “Anything?”

“Afraid not,” he closes his eyes and tilts his head as if listening to something no one else can hear.

“What’s playing on Angel Radio, Cas?” Sam asks.

He waits a moment then blinks, “There seem to be some after effects of the case happening,” he explains.

“They ok?” Sam asks.

“I’m sure things will calm down,” He says stoically. It doesn't convince anyone, especially not Dean.

“That doesn’t sound too convincing, man,” he looks over worriedly.

“Let’s just focus on wrapping this up, shall we? I’ll be back in just a moment,” Without further explanation, the angel leaves the room. He returns after a bit, “Have we made any headway?"

Sam looks up and fills him in, “Uh, yeah. Walt seems to have dropped off the map after Roy died. A bar fight in Oklahoma about a year ago landed him in jail for a bit. And then after that, he's gone again.

Alexa takes over, “He doesn’t seem to have any connection to angels either. Seems like the biggest enemy he went up against was the Men of Letters. And you, I suppose.”

“And this Josh is about as slimy as they come, but haven’t found anything solid against angels.”

“What kind of slimy, Dean?” Sam asks.

“His circle of contacts is basically a who’s who of the sleazebags we’ve run into. I mean, look at this guy,” he turns the computer around so that the others can look at his mugshot. He’s surprised when Alexa gasps.

“What is it?” Sam asks, confused.

“That’s Mike. How is that even possible? He wasn’t a hunter.”

“Who’s Mike?” Dean and Cas ask in unison, not noticing Sam’s jaw tighten.

“That’s Mike? We’ll dig to figure out if his real name is Mike or Josh, and when he became a hunter. If he,” Sam stops, “what if he handed you over to the angels?”

“Sam, no one handed Alexa to us. I found her on my own,” Cas admits.

“Wait, hold up, let me get this straight,” Dean rubs a hand over his jaw and paces for a few minutes, apparently processing. “So Alexa dated this Mike/Josh guy, then got taken by brainwashed Cas, before eventually winding up with Nick, who worked as a middleman for our psycho that tortured angels, as well as make it his life goal to get to us? That sound about right?” he’s huffing in frustration by the end.

“I’m so sorry,” Alexa chokes out. “This, this is all my fault.”

Sam grabs her before she can run again, “Hey, no, it’s not your fault.”

“Who’s this Mike asshole?” Dean’s frustration is starting to peak.

“We, um, had a rather rocky relationship,” She stops as Sam grumbles behind her.

“Wait, you remember this guy, and not Nick?” Dean asks, seeing right through his reaction.

“I didn’t want to remember Nick because I thought he meant she had moved on. This asshole though? I was tempted to ask Cas to send me back to rip his lungs out before he ever got a chance to lay a finger on Lex,” His eyes are pure fury as he finishes.

This seems to activate Dean’s big brother instinct and his hackles fly up, “Why the hell were you even with this douche, Lex?”

“Easy there, tiger,” she tries to placate, “I wasn’t exactly in a good place, ok? And I wasn’t innocent in that arrangement either. It was what you’d call an intense fight, makeup, fight, makeup cycle.”

“How’d you meet?” His hackles lowering only slightly.

“Um, a bar I think?” she shrugs, “I was starting to get lonely and he was really hot,” Dean just seems to tilt his head in agreement with that fact. Cas doesn’t miss it, if his side eye is any indication.

“Is he still alive?” Sam asks shortly.

“Well, Josh isn’t. We can see if Mike is,” Sam takes that as permission and starts typing.

“Mike Winslow, who would now be 40, has been missing since 2008 while in the middle of the investigation concerning his involvement with the disappearance of his then girlfriend,” Sam reads.

“So he changed his name after they started looking at him as the reason for Lex’s disappearance,” Dean reasons.

“Yeah, and seems it wasn’t his first, or only, time. His picture matches with five other names. So...Montana?” he says, as controlled as he can.

“Can we see if anyone else knows him first, or see if there’s some other way to look into him? What if we send someone else entirely?” Alexa pleads.

“Alexa, are you scared of this man?” Cas edges carefully.

“No, I just want this over with. I want to clear this away, take a break, and then get married. Maybe we can make it a little smaller and do it sooner. Sam, can we move the wedding up?” She rushes.

“What? Lex, slow down, what does this have to do with the wedding?”

“Sam, I just, I just want to be with you and stop getting my old mistakes thrown in my face. And I don’t need you three busting into this as overprotective bodyguards.”

“Okay, everyone just stop,” Dean speaks up. “We won’t go bumbling into this without looking at things first. Second, do not rush into anything you’ll regret Lex, especially about your wedding. You guys deserve what you want. And lastly, Lex, I’m sorry, but let’s just run all your exes,” Before she can protest, he continues, “We already have two of them that are connected to the angel thing, and we need to make sure this is done.”

She drops her chin to her chest, “I’ll make a list so we can run through them.” No one misses the reluctance in her voice.

He turns his attention to his little brother. “Before we do this, are you gonna be able to handle this as well, Sam?”

“I’m fine, Dean.” His words are stiff as they come out.

“Of course you are,” he rolls his eyes, not believing him for a moment. Alexa quickly draws up a list and starts reading off the names. After going through teach one they come to the same conclusion. “So they’re all clean or out of the picture except this Josh/Mike guy. What’s the latest on him?” he says.

“He’s going by John Rigley, now,” Sam says with only mild disgust. “Apparently he lives in Salt Lake City with a wife and three kids.” His eyes roll back in his head.

Dean looks up, “Hold up, this scumbag settled down?”

“It is possible, Dean,” Cas reprimands him.

“But it’s highly unlikely from this guy,” Alexa interjects. “How long has he been married?”

Sam continues, “Three years. What was his connection to this again?”  _ How did Lex get so tangled in this mess? _

“He ripped off Ray once and then said his girlfriend was gonna give him the money,” Dean turns a few more pages, “Huh.”

“What?” Cas looks over to him as Sam asks.

“It’s just an email address.”

Alexa looks up, “What is it?” Dean hands over the journal. “Son of a bitch.”

“Oh, that’s not bad at all,” Dean’s eyes roll back again.

Instead of commenting, Alexa only answers the unasked question, “It’s my email. My hunting one. Mi-John-whoever must have found it somehow.”

“I’m guessing he figured you out one time you left him?” Sam suggests.

“Snooping would definitely not have been above him. But I can’t remember ever leaving anything when I would leave. Didn’t exactly have much to begin with,” she shrugs.

“However he got it, he did. So how do these things line up?”

“Sam, Dean, perhaps you should grab some dinner. You three are probably hungry,” Cas abruptly changes the subject.

“Wha? Food can wait, Cas,” he starts to go back to work when the angel steps in again.

“Dean, I really think you and Sam should go for something to eat,” His voice is just a bit more stern and Dean doesn’t fight it this time.

“Yeah, ok, Sammy, let's grab some grub,” He walks away and grabs his keys.

“Sam, aren’t you joining him?” Alexa leads him, apparently onto whatever Cas is up to.

He looks between the two with some confusion, but then he remembers how Dean backed down, “Um, yeah. Wait for me Dean.” He follows after and the two hunters walk through the garage door.

After a moment, Cas breaks the silence, “I assume you know what I’m going to suggest?”

“That you and I figure this out while the two more emotional ones are distracted?” she asks with a smugly raised brow.

He smirks, pleased, but not surprised, that she thought the same thing as him. “Yes, basically.”

“Ok then, timeline I meet Mike, he crosses Ray and gives up my email, presumably to get back at me. Ray then has Jeff reach out to me, causing me to meet Nick. Nick finds out about Sam, I guess tells Ray, and Ray makes this grand plan to get all of us. But why?”

“I would agree with that. I personally don’t see how going to Salt Lake City will change anything. But I also have a feeling that Sam and Dean will not take that answer easily.”

“So what do we do?” Alexa closes her eyes and tips her head back slightly, as if the whole situation is causing her a headache. And ok, it definitely is. When she raises it up again, her fingers start massaging her temples.

“Well, we could send them to Utah,” He holds up his finger to indicate he’s not done, “Or, we trust the angels.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Her fingers stop.

He awkwardly clears his throat, “The angels believe they’ve ended this matter. Oddly enough I want to believe them.”

She thinks back to his sudden departure, “When you left?” He nods. “Ok, you know I trust you, so the plan is, we believe them. I’ll keep looking in on Mike, and we move on to planning our vacation and the wedding?”

“You weren’t bluffing about moving it up?” He asks, not faking his curiosity.

“Um, no,” Alexa starts typing without meeting Cas’s eyes. “I, ugh,” she sighs, “I’m tired of planning. We’ve figured out everything that really matters. I just want to do it.”

“That sounds..” He doesn’t want to say what he’s thinking.

“Unromantic, I know, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m excited to finally get to marry him, and like I said, with everything planned that matters,” she shrugs, “I just,” she tapers off.

“Wanna do it?” he finishes for her. “I’ll be happy to help however you need.”

Alexa looks up with a smile, “Thank you, Cas. That means a lot.”

“Of course,” he shifts slightly. “How do you think we should approach the subject with Sam and Dean though?”

Alexa looks down then back up to the angel, “We tell them that the angels have taken care of it and that,” she gestures vaguely to the laptop, “whatever his name is now, isn’t a threat."

“Is he?” he arches an eyebrow and glances at the computer.

“I don’t think so. He’s still a scumbag on several accounts, but if he even thinks about us, we don’t need to worry. I honestly think that going there and seeing him face to face would do more harm than good.”

“So that’s it?” He still sounds a bit unsure.

“That’s it. Ready to plan a vacation?” she smiles.

“I believe I am, Alexa,” He gives her a wide smile in return.

“All right then, how do you think Dean would do in first class?” she smiles.

__________________

Sam and Dean come back with greasy bags and a drink carrier of shakes, to find the other two looking up flights. “Uh, guys?”

Alexa smiles over at him brightly, “Hey, Sam, we’re booking our flights and Sarah is very excited to see us.”

Sam looks between them for a moment before hedging, “What about the case?”

“Wrapped up while you were gone,” Cas plays along.

The brothers exchange disbelieving looks. Dean swipes his tongue over his lips, “We were gone like thirty minutes.”

“It’s ok, Dean. Seriously,” she continues. “The angels contacted Cas,” Their eyes fall to the angel, “They said that there’s nothing left for us to handle.”

“We’ve been benched by the God squad, seriously?”

“Dean, this isn’t a bad thing,” Sam speaks up a little too easily for Dean’s liking earning him a disbelieving look. He then turns to Alexa, “What about Mike?”

“He’s out. He’s still a creep, but not important to us. If anything, us going there would just cause more trouble,” She explains.

Cas follows her lead, “So we decided to move ahead with planning our vacation and moving up the wedding.”

“Wait, what? Lex, you were serious? But we still have so much,” but Sam doesn’t get to finish his thought.

“Babe, stop. I don’t want to plan anymore. I just want to marry you. The important things are ready to go, let’s just do it.”

Sam is dumbfounded, and opens and closes his mouth a few times like a fish. “But, we still need suits, and we haven’t picked a venue; the important things aren’t settled. What are you talking about?”

“Sam, we’ll talk later. But right now we need to eat and figure out what we want to do while there. We leave in the morning,” She winks and takes a burger from one of the bags. “Can I get anyone anything?” She asks over her shoulder as she walks away.

“What the hell just happened?” Dean is still confused.

“We’re done working the case, Sam and Alexa are getting married sooner than originally thought, but still need to discuss things, and now we’re going to eat before planning for our vacation,” Cas sums it up for him easily. “Alexa kindly booked us in first class because she thought it would ease some of your ‘reluctance’ to flying.”

Dean visibly thinks it over before carefully choosing his words and opening his mouth, “First class?”


End file.
